SUMMER HOLIDAYS HOUSE BLITZ!

[fuzzpig]

Excuse me for shouting in the title :o

My house is utterly, completely hideous. As in, can't see the floor in the bedroom, no clear surfaces, can't find anything, falling over stuff hideous.

I've never been house proud but it's spiralled further and further as my mental health got worse, and then in 2011 my physical health followed :(

Apart from when I have flare ups of my condition(s) I have just about got used to keeping on top of the two biggest things, washing up and laundry. I am doing those now since DH started FT work a few months ago (he was unemployed due to being injured for a long time and is really struggling to adjust now). He does this on weekends and does the tidying up stuff but TBH it's like trying to bail out the Titanic with an egg cup. POINTLESS.

I seriously, really and truly can't handle this anymore. The mess is making me more ill and I'm totally disgusted that my DCs have to live with it. I just want to cry. Or burn it all (but then I panic at the thought of throwing stuff away).

Anyway. DCs are on summer holidays as of next Friday. I will hopefully be recovered from current virus as I REALLY need to tackle this. But I need to be careful as doing too much will make me more ill. I keep making the mistake of doing too much and then by the time I've gone to work as well, I've messed up the entire week because I've pushed my physical limit too far. I only work 12 hours but it's a very fine, precarious line.

I need some buddies for mutual support and motivation. HELP.

So, painting stripes was a great plan ;) Took forever! Finished now though and lovely, lovely DS is doing hall!

Right - so all jobs finished except charity shop run and clearing study.

However, on closer inspection the only issue is the desk, which I did have a go at last week. I have an hour with DD's friend here tomorrow before I give them a lift, so I think that is the study time!

Hall looks good and cloakroom is 'awesome' apparently.

Also think I have found a sofa - been looking for one for months so this would be a right result!

All in all, a good day!

Can't believe I last posted when dd2 was 4 weeks old, she's 8 weeks tomorrow!!

Progress has been made though, she will now go in the chair I got given, so that gives me odd half hours here and there to do stuff.

My beroom is nearly done, just waiting for dhs crap to be sorted as that's where the cot is going, my main aim is to just keep on top of the housework as with the kids being off their clutter just doesn't go.

Once they are back at school I need to do under the stairs, it's a nightmare.

Wow - can't believe that you were even attempting to do stuff with a 4 week old! Getting out of bed was an achievement for me then ;)

Half an hour here and there sounds like a good plan, as does keeping on top of the housework. I was chatting to someone yesterday about how I manage to clean for more than an hour each day when I am on holiday, but struggle to find an hour when I'm at work. However, it doesn't seem much cleaner now than when I started ?!?!

I have had a surprisingly good day today. Thought it was going to be a bit of a washout, but managed to finish weeding the front bed, had the gravel delivered, moved half a ton of it and covered the first half of the bed until I ran out of membrane.

Then DH went to pick up the new-to-us sofa. Was really scared all day that it wouldn't fit, but it did. It works well in the room - kids and DH really like it. It's nice and cosy now and we can all sit down together. We used to have to have a couple of people on the floor / sitting on top of someone else!

I have cleaned it once, which has brought lots of grime off and at least 8 big marks off. Just need to do a deeper clean tomorrow - ran out of leather wipes tonight...

The plus side of moving the sofa is that we now can shift the chairs out of the lounge and into the conservatory. So, the money I made earlier in the holidays has covered the cost of the sofa (with a little bit over for treats!) which I think makes it a free sofa! The perfect thing whilst we have kittens who would trash a new, expensive sofa!

Wow, you've done really well three love getting new furniture, it's very exciting

I think at 4 weeks old I was expecting far too much of myself, I'm the sort of person who just get's on with things, thought I could this time too, but with 3 other children, yes the eldest is 18 but he's still my baby lol, he's working so not at home during the day, I really thought I'd be able to breeze through the early weeks.
No chance, any noise they made woke dd2 up, I was sitting on the sofa for what felt like hours a day, it felt like I done nothing
Now she goes in this little rocking chair, well, it's a godsend, if ds2 doesn't put it to the rocking lol.

Thanks - it was lovely to come down to it today. Have completely stuffed my back though. Felt it going yesterday when I was shovelling gravel in the rain. Then moving the sofa just finished it off!

I know that feeling of despair at doing nothing that you can show as a result for the day- DS2 is 13 months younger than DS1. When I had him, I used to get so bothered at first that I had done nothing with my day - even making dinner seemed like a huge achievement in the first couple of weeks! The rocking chair must feel like you have been liberated. It's really hard in the holidays too. There's nothing like being at school to keep the house clean.

My list for today:

Move all the shoes to the shoe rack (were wet last night so needed to dry out)
Find some leather cleaner
Clean sofa again
Work out how the lounge will look best
Move lounge round (or smile nicely at DS2 to help!)

Love making these lists on here - nothing like them for motivation!

I'm still ticking on with the deep clean. At some point will need to start to get ready for work next week. I'm just hoping to get it all done before I go back.

DCs go back a week today! Sometimes I can't wait. Purely the fighting thing (it's not got any better. :(). House is absolutely horrendous but I'm very glad this thread has helped other people!

DH has managed to take Thursday off so we can both do the school runs (DD starts juniors, eek!) and then have a whole day together which hasn't happened for, erm..?

My dad agreed to come up at some point (can't remember if I mentioned that already!) for a tip/charity shop/game exchange shop run as we have no car - there is nowhere to store stuff all together til then (no garden or shed and all spaces are full already) BUT I have written a list of what we will be taking, so when he's here I can go round grabbing it all to put in the car.

I'm hoping to get more stuff done once they're back at school but I WILL get some little bits done before then rather than leaving it all. Not entirely sure what though as even the regular housework has gotten away from us this week :(

Kinky, I am envious of the deep clean. I'm not sure I know how to deep clean - wondering if there is an app / website for this??

Fuzzpig - it can be really hard in the holidays. We had a really hard summer about 3 summers ago, but thankfully boys seemed to get better as they grew out of it and got less frustrated with each other. Hope you have a lovely day next Thurs.

The list is going well:

Move all the shoes to the shoe rack (were wet last night so needed to dry out)
Find some leather cleaner
Clean sofa again
Work out how the lounge will look best
Move lounge round (or smile nicely at DS2 to help!)

Also managed to re-arrange conservatory and buy a new mat for the hall. DS kindly hoovered - amazing what you can con persuade him to do for £2!

So, feeling happy, although slightly annoyed that I got soaked to the skin gardening yesterday and the weather is lovely today, but my back refuses to allow me to contemplate finishing the garden off today